Johnson, McIntosh lead Lions past Concordia

LOWER OXFORD—- Since Lincoln lost leadingscorer Denyse Moore in thewaning moments of its win over Cheyney earlier in December, the Lions have had to look elsewhere for offense.

Cynthia Johnson has continued to play well, but each night it seemssomeone new is stepping up to make their share of plays, and scoringis coming from just about anyone who steps on the court.

Sunday afternoon against visiting Concordia college, 10 differentplayers scored for the Lions, including a pair in double digits.Johnson poured in a game-high 19 points to pace the Lions, whileTahlar McIntosh was nearly equal to the task, chipping in with 18points of her own.

“We’ve told the girls pretty much every day since Denyse went downthat we don’t need heroes,” said Lincoln coach Jessica Kern. “We justneed them to focus as a team and have someone step up a little. It’sgreat to see how much production we’ve been getting from just aboutour entire bench.”

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McIntosh was that player to step it up for the Lions Sunday, creditedwith a double-double afterpulling down 16 rebounds to go withher career-high 18 points.

“Tahlar just keeps getting better and better every week,” said Kern.“I call her our little big man. We went through a bit of a lull inthe first half where we just couldn’t score, but Tahlar had 10 rebounds in the half that helped keep Concordia at bay. She’s beendoing everything you’d expect from your senior leaders.”

Both teams struggled with shooting in the first half, with Concordiashooting a woeful 24percent from the field over the first 20 minutes, and the Lions just marginally better at 27.8percent. Worseyet, Lincoln had its troubles from the free-throw line, too, barelycracking the 50-percent plateau.

“Free throws were our Achillies heel all day,” said Johnson, who alsonotched a double-double with 12 boards, and added a career-bestsix blocked shots. “We have a goal to never go below 65 percent and totry to stay above 70percent. So that’s something we have to work on,but we kept our energy level high all game, and that helped us stay ontop.”

Lincoln led 33-26 at the end of the low-scoring first half, andConcordia kept it close for a while, even leading by as much as fourin the first 10 minutes of the second stanza. But after Amani Clarkhit on both of her free throws with 9:14 to go, Lincoln took a 46-45lead, and would never trail again.

Johnson caught fire late in the game, scoring eight of her 19 pointsin the last four minutesof play, helping bump the lead to its final15-point margin. McIntosh was the Lions’ surest hand from the charitystripe, hitting on 7 of 10 of the freebies.

“It’s nice to know I had a career high, but it’s about the wholeteam,” said McIntosh. “We all have team goals, and we mostlysucceeded in meeting them today. We played hard, smart and together.”

Johnson echoed that sentiment, citing her teammates as pivotal in hergetting the blocks she did.

“We just communicated really well together today,” said Johnson. “Ikept hearing my teammates telling me where balls were going, so I wasalways in a good position to get my hands up to block the shots.”

While it might not have been the cleanest, best game the Lions haveplayed this year, they always seemed to have the right response to anyConcordia comeback, and won going away. It’s a win that might helpprovide a little momentum as the Lions kick off their conferenceschedule with three games in five days. Lincoln will host Johnson C.Smith on Thursday, followed by Winston-Salem State Saturday, thenLivingstone next Monday before heading out on a four-game road trip.

“We have a tough opener in Johnson C. Smith, and it doesn’t get anyeasier with Winston-Salem,” said Kern. “But as long as we keepplaying as a team, we’ll be fine.”